I'll Take Manhattan

No longer in chronological order, but no less important, the rest of our time in NYC was great. The weather was a cool 72 degrees with slight cloud coverage but never any rain, the natives seemed in a very friendly mood, and neither of us was murdered, ran over, pick-pocketed, or any other horrible tragedy Law & Order puts into my head. Though I thought we were going to be swindled out of $40 cash from each of us.

The tourist breakdown is as follows:

Lodging – We stayed at an inexpensive place just a few blocks from the temple. For $100 a night we had twin beds decorated with coconut trees and pineapple, a small air conditioner that actually worked, fresh towels and soap, and a roll of toilet paper a piece. The two bathrooms down the hall were communal and you had to remember to bring your tp along with you. The communal bathrooms also afforded me a ‘lovely’ view of a pasty-white 20 something year old man coming out of his shower.

The hotel was both a rent by night, or extended stay. One such permanent guest on our floor kept his door ajar while he chanted Native American songs. I’m part Native American so I know his chanting was benign like “keep the rain away” instead of anything sinister like “plunder the tourist at the end of the hall.

Honestly, I would recommend the place to anyone and plan to use it again for future visits. However, keep in mind, deep inside of me is a Beat Poet who would love to live in on the edge of all that is good, safe and clean for a month or two.

The Show – Our original plan was to see Romeo & Juliet in the park. The price was right with in our budget (free) but the show was postponed for the night due to the previous day’s rain. We wandered up and down Broadway and the area looking for a show to see that wouldn’t break the bank. As we stepped outside of the Times Square information area a portly man with a blue t-shirt, lanyard and a clipboard of flyers summoned us to him. He had the perfect deal in town for an award winning show called the Altar Boyz. The show sounded fun, but I was concerned with just handing over cold-cash to this stranger. I invited my friend to step into my office on the side of the street.

“how do we know he’s for real?”
“It never would have crossed my mind that he isn’t”

After a few if-then questions and answers with one-another, we approached the portly man, bought what I hoped to be tickets and dashed off to the theatre to confirm. Hooray for honest people! He was legit, we got really good seats, and the show was Phenomenal! I mean, really, really freaking hilariously great! Go see this show. No blog entry will capture how much fun this musical is!

The Eats - Tuesday night we had dinner at Le Bonne Souppe. It was listed in my NY guide book, so we assumed it would be a touristy restaurant and had low expectations. Fortunately for our travelogue, it is not a touristy place and worthy of great expectations. Aside from a British couple four seats down from us, all other diners seemed to live, work, eat, and play in the city, the staff and owner had perfect French accents, and the food was decently flavorful without being heavy, and the chocolate mousse…Oh, the chocolate mousse was perfectly chocolatly and mousseie. Wednesday night’s dinner was aboard Fung Wah.

The Sights - What little time we had left was mostly spent in lines to get to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We weren’t early enough to get the pass to go into Lady Liberty, but I spent enough time in Major McMac in my childhood that I can guess what it’s like in the Statue.




We did walk around the Ellis Island Museum for a short bit. It was very moving and I wish we had been able to spend more time inside, but I was concerned about the growing line to the ferry and rushed us along.